House Dems’ new leadership team will be mostly old team

WASHINGTON — All the talk of a new generation of House Democratic leaders looks like it won’t materialize into any significant changes, as five to seven members of the current leadership team are likely to be elected to the new one.

The Democratic Caucus will meet Wednesday — and possibly into Thursday — to nominate a speaker candidate for the Jan. 3 floor vote and to elect its other leaders for the 116th Congress.

The races for the top four posts are uncontested, making it all but guaranteed that current Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of California will be nominated for speaker, Minority Whip Steny H. Hoyer of Maryland will be elected majority leader, Assistant Democratic Leader James E. Clyburn of South Carolina will be elected majority whip and Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chairman Ben Ray Lujan of New Mexico will be elected assistant leader.

Clyburn initially attracted a challenge from Colorado’s Diana DeGette, but she dropped out, leaving him unopposed.

The only potential wrinkle to those races going as expected is a last-minute effort by leaders of the anti-Pelosi contingent to also target her two deputies.

“Leader Pelosi wants to boil this down to a personal argument, but this is so much bigger than her,” Massachusetts Rep. Seth Moulton said in a statement. “It’s about the entire, stagnant, 3-person leadership team and having a serious conversation about promoting leaders who reflect the future of our caucus.”

The idea of a member launching a last-minute challenge against Hoyer or Clyburn — and furthermore Pelosi encouraging such a move after endorsing her Nos. 2 and 3 last week — seems unlikely.

Hoyer released a letter two weeks ago with 155 members (two-thirds of the incoming Democratic Caucus) saying they support him for majority leader, effectively proving that if a challenger were to emerge, he or she would not prevail.

In addition to the top four posts, three other roles may be filled by a current member of the leadership team.

The members who have cochaired the Democratic Policy and Communications Committee for the past two years — Illinois Rep. Cheri Bustos, Rhode Island Rep. David Cicilline and New York Rep. Hakeem Jeffries — are all running for different leadership positions.

Cicilline is running uncontested for a newly proposed DPCC chair position that would rank higher than the three co-chairs. Pelosi suggested last week that the caucus create the role to expand its messaging operations, which prompted Cicilline to drop out of the assistant leader race and declare his candidacy for DPCC chair.

With the cards being shuffled to provide for the aforementioned uncontested races, five members of the current leadership team are poised to return to the head table next Congress.

The other two who may also stick around are Jeffries and Bustos, who are respectively running in contested races for the Nos. 5 and 7 positions, Democratic Caucus chair and DCCC chair.

The first leadership contest the caucus will vote on Wednesday is the caucus chair race between Jeffries and California Rep. Barbara Lee. The remaining leadership races are voted in order of seniority.

The Jeffries-Lee contest is expected to be tight. Both are in the Congressional Black Caucus, whose members appear to be divided over whom to support.

Rep. Gregory W. Meeks called it a “tough race” but said he’s supporting Jeffries, his fellow New Yorker, citing his ability to bring people together.

“I see him as the kind of individual that will be able to push this caucus forward, where everybody would have a voice whether you are a Blue Dog or a progressive or (in the) Hispanic Caucus, CBC or New Dem (Coalition),” he said.